the running wall residence by LRa from india

Project : The Running Wall Residence
Category: 1 - RESIDENCES

Client : Mr. Nandakumar and Family
Location: Kolassery, Kannur, Kerala
Plot area: 93 cents (2183.09 sq.m) Total floor area: 507.93 sq m (345.63 sq m. ground floor + 162.3 sq m. first floor)

“I believe the supreme among architectural experiences are those, which occur along the route of movement in spaces that could be characterized as pauses or ambiguous plural spaces.” -B V Doshi

Contemporary architecture with its global appeal and language has totally avoided addressing the context in which it sits. There was an inner cry to address such an issue. This was one of our first attempts, in its built form, in this direction.

The brief from the client was simple and short “a fort like house that one can’t scale”. It was the situation in Kannur (one of the most politically violent/notorious districts of Kerala) that prompted the client to ask for a house that looks intimidating. In fact that is the very feel that one gets as one stands outside trying to get in.

The form is a combination of plastered walls and exposed laterite wall. Laterite stone, once profusely used in Kerala architecture, has a direct visual appeal and a connection to the immediate surroundings, because of the familiarity it imparts. The usage of this familiar stone in a new language, without losing its inane nature, would immediately root the design, at the same time, acknowledge the presence of a change, bridging this huge gap that has come about in the various languages of architecture that prevails.

The exposed laterite stone wall starts from the compound wall and winds through the landscaped yard. More than as a wall or as an enclosure, it is like a flowing sculpture through the landscape (reminiscent of Andy Goldsworthy’s piece at the Storm king Sculpture Park). The monotony of the huge walls is broken by the various voids given at random on the laterite wall. The laterite stone was sourced from two different quarries for the two distinct colours that from a pattern throughout the wall .The vertical joints between the laterite stones were filled with a paste of white cement and powdered laterite stone, thus visibly accentuating the horizontal lines. The continuous horizontal lines give more fluidity/direction to the meandering wall.

The long drive way leads one to the sit out from where a sneak preview is given of hidden courts and landscaped spill out areas. From here one steps onto a clear glass bridge, over a water body that spills out as a cascade below the main door into an internal pool. So as the main door is opened one continues to walk on the clear glass, with the visual of the cascade below the feet. From here one can choose to go to the living or the dining, both these rooms opening out into a huge landscaped, spill out area enclosed by the meandering exposed laterite wall. The dining has a long lap pool with a corridor leading one to the bedrooms. The kitchen also lies just beyond the dining. The kitchen too opens up into another landscaped yard at the back with a badminton court.

The 3 storey high internal court with banana plants, ferns and many tropical plants, has the stairs taking one into the home theater below and the study above. The corridor above has several circular skylights competing with the circular ceiling lights to light up the area.

Most of the rooms have a play of levels on the ceiling, in the form of a combination of barrel vault and flat slab at the higher level with vents to expel the hot air. This combination has brought a marked difference in the room temperature compared to other regular forms.

Each and every bit of the site was considered during design and as a result it’s heartwarming to know that each of the members finding the various levels and areas in the house a new function and a new meaning.